Production to Begin on Sequel to the Who’s ‘Quadrophenia’ Film

This summer, production will begin on To Be Someone, a sequel to the 1979 film adaptation of the Who's rock opera Quadrophenia. The movie, which will be directed by Ray Burdis, is expected to be released next year.

NME reports that the plot is based on a 2011 novel of the same name by Peter Meadows that was inspired by the characters in the movie. Phil Daniels and Toyah Wilcox are reprising their roles as Jimmy and Monkey, and sees where they are at in their lives decades removed from the mods vs. rockers battles of the mid-'60s.

The blurb at Amazon for the book, which was given its blessing by Pete Townshend, notes that Jimmy "goes from a very cocky, happy and sometimes confused teenager to a scooter-wrecking, car-taking, drug-dealing, cocaine-smuggling phony gangster. Jimmy's met all them good guys, bad guys, gangsters, psychos, weirdos and even ghosts and ghouls."

As for Monkey, Wilcox, the wife of King Crimson founder Robert Fripp, tells NME, “The natural journey for my character, nearly 40 years on, has seen her become a sexual predator, working in the sex industry as a madam. She’s married to one of the other main characters and they’re swingers.”

Although the original film's plot is wedded to its time and place, Wilcox fully understands why it has been embraced as a cult classic. "Quadrophenia was really zeitgeist and it’s never really gone away, as every new generation connects with it," she adds. "No-one expected that to happen -- it grabbed teenage angst by the balls and never let go. None of us realized the impact it would have at the time -- we were all just desperate to out do each other."